Delhi Airport expansion: Another T3 like integrated terminal to come up, new runway by 2021

In order to handle the growing footfall at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Terminal T2 of in Delhi will be made functional again, along with Terminal T1 and T2 being merged into an integrated terminal, and a new runway being built by 2021. The expansion plans is in accordance to Masterplan 2016 which DIAL finalised last year after consultation with Ministry of Civil Aviation and other stakeholders to decongest the international airport.

DIAL is a consortium led by the GMR group. Other stakeholders are government-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Germany's Fraport.

"We have planned to increase the capacity of T1 and T3 and build a fourth runway in due course of time," I Prabhakara Rao, CEO, DIAL said while sharing expansion plans for the airport. As per the master plan, capacity of T1 will be doubled from 20 million to 40 million and the capacity of T3 will be increased from 34 million to 45 million, he said in a statement.

Currently, T1 - which is used for domestic operations of some flights - can handle 20 million passengers annually. The last fiscal year saw around 24 million passengers, though. In 2016-17, the airport handled 57.7 million passengers and more than 8.57 lakh tonnes of cargo.

To handle growing footfall, departure terminal T1D would be merged with arriving terminal T1C and then expanded to accommodate 40 million passengers per annum. This new integrated terminal will be like another T3, Rao stated. A pier building will be erected as an extension of the two merged terminals, with a combined total of 22 aerobridges and 15 bus gates.

For the amalgamation to be completed, some of the operation in Terminal T1 have to be move to T2.  Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has already asked airlines operating from Terminal T1 to partially shift their operations to T2 from October.

Moreover, a fourth runway would be constructed by 2021. "This will ease out future pressure on other runways and will be constructed parallel to runway 11/29," DIAL said. At present, there are three runways.

Taking into consideration rising passenger numbers, Rao said, "We have asked the airlines operating from T1 for part shifting of operations to T2 from October. There is an immediate need to decongest T1 and one-thirds of operations need to be shifted to T2, which has been revamped with an investment of around Rs 100 crore."

Operations were stopped at Terminal T2 in 2010. T3 and T2 would cater to the growing traffic in the next three to four years by which time T1 expansion project would be completed, Rao added. There would be a "huge transformation" for T1, Rao said, adding that there would be metro rail connectivity to the terminal. The expansion activities are part of the master plan, which would be implemented in three phases starting from 2018 -2021 period. The work in the second and the third phases would be done during 2021-2025 and 2026 onwards, respectively.

(With PTI inputs)

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